1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to convertible truck boxes in general, and to convertible boxes attachable to flat bed trucks, in particular.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The desirability of changing truck boxes has long been recognized. In this manner, boxes for many different uses, such as bulk food hauling, finished goods hauling, livestock transportation, and campers etc., may be attached to a common truck chassis. A number of systems for converting boxes for different purposes are well known in the art. One vehicle, as typified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,520,433 H. D. Blackburn, utilizes means for locking a box, complete with bed, to a truck chassis. U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,845 to Willy T. Werner describes a box which is easily disassembled for storage and reassembled for delivery purposes. Perhaps the most common system used, as typified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,119,503 to W. A. Herpich et al, has guides with latch pins for attaching a body to a flat bed. Such systems generally have the disadvantages of requiring separate beds for each box, requiring time consuming assembly and disassembly, and, where boxes are attached to existing beds, the boxes are not tightly secured to the bed, resulting in undesirable creaks and rattling and further resulting in moisture damage to the cargo. Furthermore the boxes are not aerodynamically designed to prevent potentially dangerous stress to the latch members holding the box to the bed.